Goya and the Awakening Consciousness

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibition from 22 March to 23 June in the Flora and Hercules Temporary Exhibition Halls, which includes a carefully chosen selection of paintings that reveal Goya’s artistic and vital evolution, as well as the periods and subjects he addressed throughout his career.

Curated by Víctor Nieto Alcaide, the exhibition presents a selection of works by the Spanish painter, Francisco de Goya as a way to understand the artist in his times, as well as the constant exchange between the world around him and his artistic tasks.

This exhibition, which follows the one organised in Milan (Goya. The Rebellion of Reason), highlights this aspect of Goya’s work and personality. It also includes a series of paintings that deserve special mention, the copper plates made for the Whims and Disasters of War and The Follies engraving series (held at the Academy, in the National Engraving Museum), which have been recently restored.

The exhibition is divided into four sections: The Painter, the Norm and the Clientele; The Awakening of Consciousness; A Painting on the Margin of Style and The Expressiveness of Reason. These sections are made up of paintings, drawings, prints and engravings, revealing Goya’s artistic and vital evolution.

Image Credits:

• The Madhouse (detail) 1814 - 1816. Madrid, San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts,  Museum
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. 1798. Oil on Canvas. Madrid, Prado National Museum. © Prado National Museum Photo Archive, Madrid
• The Burial of the Sardine. 1808-1812. Oil on panel. Madrid, San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Museum.
• Witches’ Flight. 1797. Oil on Canvas. Madrid, Prado National Museum. © Prado National Museum Photo Archive, Madrid